The droop rule disaster

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Move on, you all sound like Kevin Rumley whining and crying. Rules are rules, just ask Kyle Strickler at the scales last night.

Weight is a necessary, and historical rule.

Kevin is one of the few sane people left in this sport. He actually still understands historically, what our race cars were, from a simple set of rules standpoint and the philosophy of what participating in the class involved.

We've begun accelerating down a slope where more and more rules keep being invented because the previous one failed to have the intended result. Let alone the fact that the original one would never have been written 20 years ago, because doing something different was never a problem. There is nothing wrong with having rules. When the rulebook balloons to twice it's size in a few years, this isn't dirt late model racing anymore.

[Buford.Justice]

How about just ending the droop rule????

Masters, what is your opinion?

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

How about just ending the droop rule????

Masters, what is your opinion?

I support that 100%. They started with limiting shock length. Then they went to jacking up the lr. Now they are lifting both rear tires. The more they think they limit things, the more you have to do to stay on par with the smart guys that are getting all they can within the new rule set. It's exhausting and expensive for people trying to keep using the same car year after year. Sure, I might buy or build some little things to try and gain speed each year. But it leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you are a poor team and you suddenly have to buy a bunch of new things to maintain your place on the performance scale, due to parts now flat being illegal or parts suddenly being woefully obsolete.

[Driver50x]

How about eliminate the droop rule, and cut the spoiler down to about half of its current height, and maybe narrow it a little. Wouldn’t that minimize the reason for hiking the rear end up in the air?

[Rajflyboy]

The more droop the better 👍

[billetbirdcage]

I'm not going to get into specifics here or divulge teams secrets but:

Under last years rules, you could easily get 2+ more inches of hike on the track if you knew how to beat the rule verses how they measured it in the pits.

To be able to do what the professional teams (high dollar teams, if you will) are doing, he has to buy several items and do a but of work to the car. Now is this super expensive, well that depends on your yearly budget and what you call expensive. I would guess to say for most people even doing the work themselves and making what they can and only buying what 99% of people could not make by themselves is probably in the 1500 to 3K range. For the professional teams this likely isn't close to 1/2 a % of their budget but an "Average Joe Team" that may be 10/20% or more if your talking small local crate teams.

Now with the rule change this year, now you have to redo a lot of that stuff again. TEAMS WILL FIND A WAY TO MAXIMIZE WHAT EVER RULE THEY CHANGE OR ADD.

I'm all for unified rules but Masters has some valid complaints. What happened to the body skew rule? Some guys that ran several speedweeks races said they didn't check Jack on the bodies? Maybe those days they didn't check and did other times, but who know? I haven't found anyone to tell me they checked it, but then again I didn't try real hard to find out by calling everyone I knew.

Change stagger, opps messed up droop measurement: DQ
Change RR shock, opps may have messed up droop measurement: DQ
Change RF spring or ride hieght, opps may have messed up droop measurement: DQ
Change LR 4 link bars or positions and topped out a shock, Opps your chain isn't tight now at full droop: DQ

You get my point!

[dirtcrazy4u]

So we take all these 4 bar set ups and let everyone go back to leaf springs. Boy the headaches that would be eliminated.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

So we take all these 4 bar set ups and let everyone go back to leaf springs. Boy the headaches that would be eliminated.

Not with the new class of rules makers. We'd have fast boys half leafs for hike. Then they'd outlaw that. Then we'd have asymmetrical arched leafs, with the axle placed for max hike. They would outlaw that. Then we'd have complex rear leaf hangers to gain hike. They would make another rule. Then we'd have leaf mounts floated on the axle, they would need a new rule. We'd have leaf that pivot at the axle for better roll steer, they outlaw that. It would still never end.

[Rajflyboy]

Now I’d think the front end has to be what I call “Woppy Jaw” due to the body roll/centrifugal force in the corners. Am I correct in this thinking ?

[BVogtjr30]

How about taking a 2” hole saw to the noses of these cars or going back to the “older style” fronts that weren’t so aero dependent? And raising them back up from where they are now. Use to see a lot more passing compared to nowadays and any car that folds the nose down they are done for the night, also seems to make passing a lot more difficult when you are behind a car. Half the time the leader can’t get around a lapped car because of aerodynamics, there was a reason they went away from the wedge bodies and back to more normal looking cars. Maybe that’s what is needed again. Getting closer and closer to resembling nascar racing with downforce issues and looking more like an airplane instead of a race car.

[Rajflyboy]

Whatever it is I’d say things are really dam good right now in dirt late model. I would not change much.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

How about taking a 2” hole saw to the noses of these cars or going back to the “older style” fronts that weren’t so aero dependent? And raising them back up from where they are now. Use to see a lot more passing compared to nowadays and any car that folds the nose down they are done for the night, also seems to make passing a lot more difficult when you are behind a car. Half the time the leader can’t get around a lapped car because of aerodynamics, there was a reason they went away from the wedge bodies and back to more normal looking cars. Maybe that’s what is needed again. Getting closer and closer to resembling nascar racing with downforce issues and looking more like an airplane instead of a race car.

You hit one of the huge problems. When we went to manufactured noses, they were much taller and no splitter. The sanction bodies just kept approving more and more aerodynamic noses and roofs with a rubber stamp. The negligence in safe guarding those items has made the cars race horribly.

[Drop Shock]

Mark Whitner failed the droop rule twice in one night. One of his crew members posted that once the car was in the air and rear end was off the ground picking up on the front end changed the measurement 1 inch to the good. Having a rule that is dependent on wheel loads when the primary tool to adjust a racecar throughout the night is manipulating wheel loads seems like a huge problem to me. How can the officials be this stubborn or stupid or both?

[dirtcrazy4u]

Turning back the clock. Remember when steve francis retired and became a part of lucas ? Everyone said change was coming, he'll get things back to were they belong. I guess collecting a pay check must not be so bad after all.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Mark Whitner failed the droop rule twice in one night. One of his crew members posted that once the car was in the air and rear end was off the ground picking up on the front end changed the measurement 1 inch to the good. Having a rule that is dependent on wheel loads when the primary tool to adjust a racecar throughout the night is manipulating wheel loads seems like a huge problem to me. How can the officials be this stubborn or stupid or both?

When you make rules stating the "right size bolt has to go in the right size hole", as if uncontrollable motion is a key to speed, you don't have a good grasp on what is happening. You are just throwing excrement against the wall, hoping something sticks, apparently trying to appease someone. That was 2016. It continues.